How to make text flash different colors in a C# console application?

Question

I have this program http://pastebin.com/uHNi15pW

I want this code to flash all of the colors avalible

Console.WriteLine("Welcome to Tic Tac Toe!");

How do I go about this?

Answer 1

Try this

            while (true)
            {
                foreach (ConsoleColor c in Enum.GetValues(typeof(ConsoleColor)))
                {
                    Console.ForegroundColor = c;
                    Console.WriteLine("Welcome to Tic Tac Toe!");
                    Console.Clear();
                }
            }

You can add some deley in foreach to set slow down blinking

          while (true)
            {
                foreach (ConsoleColor c in Enum.GetValues(typeof(ConsoleColor)))
                {
                    Console.ForegroundColor = c;
                    Console.WriteLine("Welcome to Tic Tac Toe!");
                    Thread.Sleep(1000); // 1 sec. deley
                    Console.Clear();
                }
            }

If You want something withoutConsole.Clear() try this: You must set the positions of X and Y

Console.WriteLine("Some text"); // this text will stay when tesxt "Welcome to Tic Tac Toe!" will by blinking

 while (true)
    {
        foreach (ConsoleColor c in Enum.GetValues(typeof(ConsoleColor)))
        {
            Console.CursorLeft = 4; // set position
            Console.CursorTop = 6; // set position
            Console.ForegroundColor = c;
            Console.WriteLine("Welcome to Tic Tac Toe!");

        }
    }

In Your code You must paste code like this befeore do loop:

var task = new Task(() =>
            {
                while (true)
                {
                    foreach (ConsoleColor c in Enum.GetValues(typeof(ConsoleColor)))
                    {
                        var x = Console.CursorLeft;
                        var y = Console.CursorTop;

                        Console.CursorLeft = 0; // set position
                        Console.CursorTop = 0; // set position

                        Console.ForegroundColor = c;
                        Console.WriteLine("Welcome to Tic Tac Toe!");

                        Console.CursorLeft = x;
                        Console.CursorTop = y;

                        Thread.Sleep(1000);
                    }
                }

                });

do
{
.... rest of code

And change this, after Board create:

                Board();// calling the board Function

                if (task.Status != TaskStatus.Running)
                {
                    task.Start();
                }

                choice = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());//Taking users choice  

Full code You have here

https://github.com/przemekwa/ProgramingStudy/blob/master/ProgramingStudy/Study/TikTakTou.cs

And effect will by blinking sign while You play.

Answer 2

To do this, you will need to know the position of the text on the console (because Console.WriteLine will simply write at the current cursor position). You can do something like this:

public async Task ShowTextInColors(string text, int x, int y, int delay, CancellationToken token)
{
    ConsoleColor[] colors = Enum.GetValues(typeof(ConsoleColor)).OfType<ConsoleColor>().ToArray();

    int color = -1;
    while (!token.IsCancellationRequested)
    {
        color += 1;
        if (color >= colors.Length) color = 0;
        Console.CursorLeft = x;
        Console.CursorTop = y;
        Console.ForegroundColor = colors[color];
        Console.Write(text);
        await Task.Delay(delay, token);
    }
}

x and y determine the cursor position on the console at which you want to display the text.

You can call this like that:

CancellationTokenSource source = new CancellationTokenSource();
ShowTextInColors("Welcome to Tic Tac Toe!", 0, 10, 1000, source.Token);

and eventually stop it by calling

source.Cancel();

Note that this will interfer with other calls to Console.* methods in other threads. And since your question looks like you want to display a tic tac toe game below that line, you may need to synchronize your Console.* calls. But synchronization would be a new question and you will surely find a lot of them on StackOverflow (try lock keyword).